Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Rating Food 8/10, Service 8/10For a recent dinner with my family because we didn't feel like cooking in the heat, we decided to head out to Jumbo Dim Sum Dining for an eight course meal. My brother was looking forward to the traditional unlimited desserts, which he had a lot of at our last visit here. We had no hope we'd finish all that food, so we packed a lot of leftovers for lunch the next day, but hey, its nice to have variety!

We started off our meal with a nice cool Cold appetizer platter. Think of it as a Chinese charcuterie platter with various pickled and brined varieties of cuts of meat. I went straight for the center - my favorite cold pickled jellyfish - springy, salty savory and a hit of spice. Heehee, I used to call them "elastic bands" when I was younger... okay, I still call them that!! Lol! The boneless chicken feet were a nice textural and spicy tangy punch of flavor, while the in house made char siu was moist and flavorful with its hoisin sweet glaze. The braised sliced beef shank was a salty savory in its soy based sauce, while the pickled cold pork hock with was tangy with a light chili glaze.

Our second course was the large shrimp in mango cream. Yup, they still haven't change the incorrect mislabelled item from this menu as it should read large shrimp in peach cream. Ah wells, still, they're large shrimp, lightly battered, deep fried till crispy and tossed with a miracle-whip like tasting sauce. Tangy and savory mmmm! And yes, my inner child went for the canned peaches first :)

Our soup course was next with Fish maw egg drop soup. Lots of soft fluffy pieces of fish maw in this satisfying chowder like soup. Red wine vinegar and white pepper available on the side if you'd like to dress it up a bit. Simple and yummy.

Next up was a Trio of seafood bird's nest with plenty of large succulent butterflied shrimp, scallops and squid strips nearly spilling out of a crispy deep fried potato straw nest. The seafood and assorted bed of veges: on a bed of carrots, sweetpeas, celery, baby corn and mushrooms were all sauteed in ginger root and green onion infused oil. Mmm!

Our fish course, instead of our usual steamed fresh fish - whatever is swimming around in the tank, we went with one of their special of the night - a fried braised white fish, which turned out to be some white fish fillets - basa maybe? battered in a thick coating, fried and sauced with a tangy tasty sweet and sour sauce on a bed of veges and served in a giant fish shaped "hot pot".

The fish shaped heated serving platter was very neat - it had little "flues" vents on the side that you can open and close to control how hot the heat from the flame keeping the fish and sauce pipping hot. We dampened the flames pretty quick to prevent the fish from overcooking... but very cool!

Veges, what veges? Just kidding! We got a plate of Ginger and garlic infused Stir fried Gai lan as our vege course. Cooked to a sweet tender crisp, the ginger and garlic make this vege that tastes similar to Swiss chard super tasty.. mmm!

After your veges, the next dish that came out was the garlic friend chicken. Deep fried so the skin is a thin crispy golden brown and its meat a juicy succulent tender moist, sitting in a puddle of sweetened soy sauce. Mmm.. scoop some of the soya-fried garlic bits sauce into your rice.. because plain bland rice is a nono! :)

Our last course was the XO sauce beef - medium bite sized pieces of tender beef are tossed in a tangy dark carmalized sauce along with some sauteed colored sweet bell peppers.

the DESSERTSNow onto the unlimited dessert bar! I first go for one of my favorites tapioca and taro dessert! Partially my fav cuz it taste great, and also cuz its a pain in the ass to make at home. Small diced chunks of taro root add a touch of sweetness and texture to the creamy milky sweetened base, with lots of soft tapioca pearls swimming about in this yumminess. Beside it is a scoop of baked tapioca dessert, with a really curious texture as its tapioca pudding interior, with a almost taffy like texture on the top. They only make one pan a night, so get to it early if you like to try some!

I thought I snapped a pic of their little buttery crisp mini almond cookies, but I guess all you get is a tinny bit of cookie peeking out from behind a bowl of red bean dessert dressed up a bit with some earthy black glutinous rice added to it. Its supposedly good for keeping color in your hair, but I think its more an excuse to eat dessert lol!

And finally, what I personally think is a mishmash, but tasty anyhoos, Taro, red bean and tapioca dessert. Essentially the two desserts above mixed with large chunks of fluffy sweet taro pieces in it. Mmm!

Overall, a great place to pig out on some tasty Chinese fare... with lots to bring home for lunch!